‘When a State exercises power wholly within the domain of state interest, it is insulated from federal judicial review. But such insulation is not carried over when state power is used as an instrument for circumventing a federally protected right.’
‘To assume that political power is a function exclusively of numbers is to disregard the practicalities of government. Thus, the Constitution protects the interests of the smaller against the greater by giving in the Senate entirely unequal representation to populations. It would be strange indeed, and doctrinaire, for this Court, applying such broad constitutional concepts as due process and equal protection of the laws, to deny a State the power to assure a proper diffusion of political initiative as between its thinly populated counties and those having concentrated masses, in view of the fact that the latter have practical opportunities for exerting their political weight at the polls not available to the former. The Constitution—a practical instrument of government—makes no such demands on the States.’
Population | Ratio to | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
per | Fulton | |||
County | Population | Unit Vote | Unit Vote | County |
Fulton | 556,326 | 40 | 13,908 | |
DeKalb | 256,782 | 20 | 12,839 | |
Chatham | 188,299 | 16 | 11,760 | |
Muscogee | 158,623 | 14 | 11,330 | |
Webster | 3,247 | 2 | 1,623 | 8 to 1 |
Glascock | 2,672 | 2 | 1,336 | 10 to 1 |
Quitman | 2,432 | 2 | 1,216 | 11 to 1 |
Echols | 1,876 | 2 | 938 | 14 to 1 |
End of Document | © 2024 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. |